Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

Pi Day … 14th March ….. 3.14

Pi Day celebrates an AMERICAN Pi because:

1. AUSTRALIA and UK:

Australia and UK write their dates DD/MM/YY and the 14th March or 14.3 is nothing to get excited about.

2. EUROPE

Pi in Europe is pronounced Pee. So 14th March Would be

Pee Day.

And Pee Day would not be something to encourage in Middle School. Also the perfume below is hilarious in Europe.

…………………………………………………….

Nevertheless, here are 2 interesting appearances by Pi in the movies plus a middle school challenge to count the Pi’s in the movie clip.

1. A Beautiful Mind

In this movie where Russell Crowe plays Mathematician Nobel Laureate John Nash, there is a maths blooper involving Pi. Watch for pi on the window at 43 seconds.

You should have seen 0<π<1. But we all know π = 3.1415 etc. For those mathematically fastidious an argument can be put that π can be used as a variable, which would make the statement true. But π is a universal constant so using π as a variable is just STUPID.

………………………………………………………….

2. Pi: The Movie

This 1998 psychological thriller promo clip is also the coolest maths promo you will ever see. It is only 1.42 mins long and it is big on π. But be warned the full lenght moive (SPOILER ALERT) involves madness, π and self-lobotomising with a power drill with a ‘happy’ ending.

Meanwhile Mathspig called her upcoming talk for the International Congress of Mathematical Education 2016 in Hamburg:

I thought it was a typo. Not so! The Germans, the Dutch and other European countries do not call π ‘Pi’, they call it ‘P’ or ‘Pee’ because ‘i’ is pronounced ‘ee’, for instance, in German. So I had called my great international maths talk Pee-in-your-face funny! And the German organising committee seemed happy enough with the title.

To be diplomatic and to avoid the attracting the wrong type of audience I’ve retitled my talk:

How many m&ms would kill a 14-year-old? Making middle-school maths real, relevant, deadly serious and ha^2 funny!

So Happy π Day English speakers and now, for a laugh, look at some of our Pi or Pee jokes through the eyes of, say, a German.

That’s because of the beer.

One whole day dedicated to pi.

It’s epic!

Mathematicians in love .., awwww!

So cute or they’re pissed.

………………………………………..

OK. ‘I 8 sum pi’ but adding the ‘delicous’ makes this weird for a German. D’Oh!

Very expensive bottle of pi.

Mmmm! Pecan pi.

Rabbit Pi must be a problem.

Dessert wine, maybe?

That’s, like, every day after a night out on the ‘piss’ as we so delicately call it in Australia.

You too can have tasty pi. I don’t know how and frankly, I don’t want to know.